The beverage companies plan to achieve the calorie cut by
leveraging marketing and distribution to promote smaller portion
sizes, water and other no- or low-calorie beverages. Companies
will also provide calorie counts on all company sale equipment,
including vending machines, self-serve fountain dispensers and
retail coolers. Efforts will be focused in areas where there has
been less interest in and/or access to lower calorie options.

The agreement was announced at the annual Clinton Global
Initiative, following work with the Alliance for a Healthier
Generation, an organization founded by the American Heart
Association and the Clinton Foundation. In 2006, the same players
established the Alliance School Beverage Guidelines, which
resulted in cutting full-calorie soft drinks and providing
smaller portions of lower-calorie beverages in schools across
America.

“This initiative will help transform the beverage landscape
in America," American Beverage Association CEO Susan K. Neely
said in a statement. "It takes our efforts to
provide consumers with more choices, smaller portions and
fewer calories to an ambitious new level."

However, beverage companies' decision to cut calories may not
only be paying off in terms of goodwill and healthier customers.
Soda sales have been plummeting as customers have become more
health savvy. In 2013, soda sales reached their lowest levels in
nearly two decades, Reuters reports.

The pledge states that "water and lower-calorie beverages are
expected to grow significantly" over the next decade. If Coke,
Dr. Pepper and Pepsi want to combat slumping soda sales, growing
these markets was already part of the plan, regardless of
concerns for customers' health.